The food crisis of 2007-08 in the MENA region, led to a high awareness of the importance of food security in the GCC region. Due to global food shortage, various regular meat exporting nations, like Russia, India and Australia, had cut down on their export, to protect the domestic consumer. This resulted in the GCC region vulnerable to shortage of meat. The meat price rose by almost 26% during the period between March 2007 and March 2008. As the region has a large percentage of meat consuming population, securing the supply of meat is of utmost importance, especially during the Ramadan season. As of 2015, the edible meat industry in the GCC region was valued at USD XX.XX billion. It is forecasted to increase at a CAGR of X% between 2016 and 2021.

Drivers

Key factors driving the growth of the edible meat market industry of the GCC countries are the inclination of growth towards tourism, robust economic growth, changing consumer trends, and advanced technologies. Strong economic growth leading to higher protein consumption, growing numbers of domestic, as well as, expat population, coupled with rising preference for red meat (both sheep and bovine meat) are driving the meat market in the region. Moreover, most of the working-class population in GCC prefer a healthy life. Processed meat is the primary choice of food.

Restraints and Challenges

The region, due to its high Islamic population, faces certain constraints in the form of strict quality checks and phytosanitary norms, along with Halal requirements. Meat processing companies must be very careful in their selection of meat and non-meat ingredients. In addition to the already existing constraints, classification of red meat and processed meat as, possibly, carcinogenic foods by the WHO is reducing the consumption of these products in certain sections of the educated population.

Opportunities

Potential opportunities exist in the market, regarding trade, food processing and infrastructure requirements. Like many other countries, this region imports live animals, thereby, creating great opportunities for setting up slaughter houses and processing plants in the region. Many countries like UAE, provide subsidized land for this purpose. GCC countries encourage the establishment of new poultry farms and the expansion of existing ones to attain the maximum self-sufficiency possible in meat production.

Key Developments

The GCC nations have banned raw beef imports from the US (February 2012) and Brazil (December 2012), due to cases of mad cow disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy). This has benefitted the Australian and Indian beef export market. Australian beef export has witnessed a high growth, post-2011, thereby, increasing the market share from 4% in 2010 to 9% in 2015. Also, the demand for premium products, like Angus beef from Australia, has increased. However, speculation of a possible lift of the ban on Brazilian meat export this year, along with the lift of the ban on French beef export is forcing Australia to sign a free-trade agreement with various GCC nations, to secure its export.

GCC lifted a 15-year ban on beef imports from France, which has provided exporters some relief from the crushing pressure on meat prices, due to the Russian Embargo.

Low oil prices have put a strain on the public finances of the government of Bahrain. This has resulted in the government deciding to reduce and prevent leakage of various subsidies, including meat axing subsidies. This is expected to double the price of meat in Bahrain, especially red meat. The effect is expected to be stronger in the sheep and goat meat, as compared to bovine meat. However, in this new policy, Bahraini families would be compensated through direct payments into their bank accounts. This policy is expected to be followed by many other small GCC nations, like Kuwait.

Mordor Intelligence

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